Seed feeder



Sept. 28 1926.

F. wsEwoLosc'ilsKY SEED Filed Dec.' 28, 1925 Patented Sept. 28, 1926.

UNITED? STATES:

PATENT oFF1cE.-

FRANZ WsnWoLosoHsKY, or BREMEN, GERMANY, assreivon oF ONE-HALF 'ro i3. HoLTierAUs, MASCHINENFABRIK A. G. DINKLAGE, GERMANY.

SEED FEEDER.

Application led December 28, i925, Serial No. 77,994, and in Germany April 20, 1924.

Machines for sowing single grains with depositing wheel by which the seed-grains gripped by means` of an oscillat-ing gripper,V

are singly deposited in the ground, have become known. The grippers of known type in the shape of tongs present, however, the

inconvenience that the grains arev easilyA damaged.

According to this invention the grippers are constructed as forks having conical ends with elastic prongs which` are conducted along stationary strippers, whereupon the grains arey delivered through a tube tothe depositing-wheel. The grippers, which are oscillating in the well known manner, are further arranged ther one behind the other in great number and separately from the depositing wheel on a disk mounted above the depositing wheel. The construction of the machine in general is further improved as will be hereinafter described and shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which Y Fig. 1 is a partial side machine.

Fig. 2 shows in side elevation, on larger scale than that used in Fig. l, the gripping ap aratus. A

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of Fig. 2.v

Fig. 4 shows the gripper alone in frontelevation and inside elevation, on a larger scalethan used in Figs. 2 and 8.

In the top part of a reservoir a containing the seed-grains a gripper disk Z) is rotatably mounted on which disk Z) the grippers Z are pivotally mounted by means of pivots c, said elevation of the Y grippers being designed to feed the grains singly to a discharge tube e through which the grains are conducted into a depositing wheel f. As shown, this tube has t flaring upper inlet end formed with guide slots e at t-wo diametrically opposite sides thereof.

As shown in Fig. 4 each gripper CZ consists of a fork having two prongs the ends of which are slightly bent outward so that when a gripper is pushed into a heap of grains one grain will always be jammedbetween the prongs without being damaged. Theprongs (Z1, Z2 are elastic. A stripper g isY supported upon one of the slotted walls of tube e, so as penetrate between the prongs of each gripper. The front edges of the prongs (Z1, (Z2 of each gripper are partly connected so that the gripper when passing along the stripper g is partly guided on said stripper.

Vith this object in View the elastic grippers are made, as shown in Fig. 4, from a piece of sheet metal bent to form a chan-- neled or Usha-ped body portion comprising a pair .of side walls ZL united at one edgeby a transverse bridge wall ZL', the bridge wall being of less length than the side walls or cut away at the point z' (Fig. 4), leaving the outer extremities of the walls ZL freey and 4forming the resilient gripping prongs or jaws cZ-6Z2. By this construction the resilient jaws are made with the body portion vof the gripper of a'unitary piece of material, thus securingsimplicity and economy of construction, and also by such construction tary construction `of gripper of the character' described, inherently flexible gripping jaws are produced; obvia-ting the necessity of hinging the avvs to the body port-ions of the gripper and of providing auxiliary springs for making the jaws resilient. i

As the grippers are pivotally mounted on the rptati'ng disk Z2. it .will be evident that,

in the rotation of saiddisk, the grippers will be carried around with the disk and at the same time will swing by gravity on their pivotal connections c. As each gripper reaches the lowest position in its orbit of rotation, it will accordingly drop by gravity so that its free end provided with the jaws cZ-Z2 will depend into the hopper so that the jaws will come into eiigagement with and pick up a seed. On the further rotation and trav-el therein across the inlet end of thc tube, thus being guided positively in its movements during the operation of discharging the seed from its jaws. As each gripper comes into discharging position, its groove or channeled body portion first engages the stripper g and runs in guided connection therewith, the relative motion of the parts causing the stripper to pass fi'oin the guide channel into the space between the gripping jaws, as the latter pass over the mouth or entrance end of the hopper,- whereby at tlie limit of discharging motion of the gripper the stripper is brought into contact with the seed held between the gripping jaws, whereby the seed is positively forced out of the jaws and into the discharge tube. rlhis construction ensures an accurate bringing of the grippers into engagement with the stripper, and the latter into engagement with the gripped seed, so that a positive and measured working action will at all times be obtained.

As shown in Fig. l a wheel 'u having points designed to make holes in the ground is coupled with the depositing wheel by a chain gear al.

A guide wheel Z is rotatably mounted on an oscillatable arm 7c. A depositing wheel f is rotatably mounted underneath the grain reservoir a in a cylinder m. A guide funnel e is telescoped into a drop tube e, which terminates in the depositing wheel f somewhat behind the centre of said wheel. The depositing wheel 7 is rotated by bevel wheel transmission n, 0 from a vertical axle composed of two parts y), p, adjustable in vertical direction. The depositing wheel 7 has cavities r in its circumference. The wall 3 between the cavities r are of the same depth as the cavities so that the mouth e, of the drop tube is closed for the same time as it is open. rlhe drop tube c, terminates over the cavities 1" above the axle f, of the depositing wheel so that a cavity in which a' grain has been deposited must execute a rotation of more than 180o before the grain can 'drop out of the opening m, of cylinder m. @n the cylinder m a guide wall m2 is arranged for accurately guiding the grain which drops out.

The angular speed of the depositing wheel f and the angular speed of the gripper disk and further the distance of the cavities r with regard to one another are such that a cavity r into which a grain has been droppet will have cleared the drop Y tube before another grain is 'dropped by a gripper so that only one grain can be dropped into one cavity.

Owing to the telescopic arrangement of the drop tube and of the driving axle for the depositing wheel f a uniform delivering of each grain into one cavity of said depositing wheel is ensured-even if the fall head is varied by unevenness of the ground. lf

the fall head is reduced so that when the grain is dropped the mouth of the drop tube is not yet free the grain remains in the inclined mouth end of the drop tube until the cavity of the depositing wheel arrives under the mouth of the drop tube. In order to prevent crushing of the grains the mouth e2 of the drop tube has an enlargement e', in the direction of rotation of the depositing wheel f and further a radially directed edge t. As the radial edge extends in the direction of rota-tion of the depositing wheel 7 the grain iolls in themouth e', of the drop tube withoutbeing crushed.; Y j

By the arrangement of the cavities in the depositing wheel, the adjustable drop tube and the adjustable driving axle, it is absolutely prevented that, even if the fallhead should vary, more than one grain be deposited in each hole in the ground, and vcrushing of grains which should have-been dropped prematurely is also prevented.

I claim:

l. In a seed feeder, a hopper, a discharge Y tube having an entrance end located above the level of the seed in the hopper, a disk rotatable upon a horizontal axis, a -stationary stripper arranged in proximity to the entrance end of the discharge tube, and grippers carried by the disk and pivotally mounted to swing thereon in a direction transverse to the axis of the disk, said gripers having resilient gripping jaws attheir free ends adapted to pick upL the seed from the hopper, said grippers being movable in the rotation of the disk over-fthe entrance end of the discharge tube and in such: relation to the stationary stripper as tofcause the latter to engage and release the seedfroin the gripper j aws at the moment of travel of said jaws over the entrance endof the discharge tube. j j 1 y 2. In a seed feeder, a'seed hopper, a dis-V charge tube having an upper entrance end arranged above the level of the seed in the hopper and provided with guide notches in vdiametrically opposite walls thereof a stationary stripper mounted on the hopper in alinement with said guide notches, a rotary disk mounted upon a horizontal axis, and grippers carried by said disk` and pivotally mounted upon one side of said disk so as to swing within and without the line of its circumference, each of said vgrippers having a channeled body portion and spaced resilient gripping aws forming extensions of the walls of the channels, the construtcion being` such that in the rotation of the disk the grippers will swing outwardly therefrom to cause their jaws to pick up seeds from the hopper and so that at one point Vin their path of revolution, the grippers will engage and ride inthe guide notches in the entrance en'd v of the discharge tube and the channeled portions thereof will receive and engage the stripper, whereby in the movements of the grippers the stripper will be guided into the spaces between the j aWs to dislodge the seed therefrom..

3. A gripper according to claim l, comprising a folded piece of sheet metal bent to provide a longitudinally channeled body portion terminating et one en'd in inherently resilient gripping jews Vforming extensions of the side Walls of the channeled body porl0 tion.

In testimony whereof I aix my signature.

FRANZ WSEWOLOSCHSKY. 

